Kent 820 Semi-Hollowbody

Amazing find! Sort of shaped like a melted Rickenbacker 360 but with sharp-point cutaways. Really nicely balanced feel, slender sleek body, lays nicely on my bod. Great neck action, 22 frets, easy to adjust for low sleek action. Gorgeous. Mine is near-mint with its original hardshell case, what a steal for $199 on eBay in January 2008.

Great sound--- I prefer humbuckers since most of my work is in a digital studio with flourescent lighting and tons of electronics running which get picked up by single-coils. This one seems on the very low end of picking up hum and interference. Lots of variety in the great-sounding pickups plus using the tone-control.

I'm surprised at how well-made this guitar is. Probably late 60's or early 70's maybe? I don't know which Japan factory made this but they sure did a heck of a job, tons better than 99% of the basic Teisco's floating around, maybe Matsumoku quality or even better.

Solid as a rock. No concerns about durability or reliability.

(no warranty or customer support on a 40 year old guitar!)

I own about 300 guitars, maybe half are vintage Gibson, Guild, Gretsch etc. This guitar really jumped to the "never sell this baby" category.

I'm truly amazed at the quality of this guitar. Buy one if you can find one.

I believe this is Japanese...late 60s model.
22 frets, zero fret, laminate top and back semi-hollow body.
2 vol, 2 tone, three way pickup selector, and one suck switch (now bypassed).
Pickups are s/s. Neck pickp has a groovy slant to it.
Tuners are cheap, but they work, so I'm leaving them stock for now.
The body shape is hard to describe. It's a double-cutaway with f-holes, resembling a 335 on acid.
Crappy roller bridge (mine was frozen) with decent Bigsby-ish tailpiece.
The BEST feature is that this guitar is very light. The weight doesn't dig into my shoulder like my other guitars.

This is where I was pleasantly surprised. I am used to solid-body humbucker-equipped rock guitars.
The 820 has single coils and it's hollow, so it has a country/surf/jazz/blues tone, and can be dialed in to do many, many great tones. It is an excellent blues guitar.

I flipped one of the pickups to make it cancel hum in middle position, bypassed the extra vol and tone so it works with only one master volume knob, and replaced the bridge with a post mounted roller bridge.
Now it stays in tune with trem use, and I can get good controlled feedback if I want. I've now used this at LOUD full-volume gigs and the body feedback is not an issue.

I got this VERY used. I believe it was a wall-hanger at a bar because it was dripping with nicotine and coated with many years of dust when it arrived.
I took it all apart, refretted the neck, and cleaned up the wiring and switches. I had to scrub the body to get all the grime off it, and found that the top and back have really great crazing in the finish.
I also had to glue a crack in the neck, and now the guitar plays like new.

Works great live. It stays in tune, the single coils do NOT pick up much 60-cycle hum (and none at all in middle position, now that I flipped the coil on the bridge pickup), and it doesn't break strings.
This 820 can certainly be used without a backup.

Company is long gone.

I looked for one of these for a long time, and now that I have one I'm very happy with the way it sounds and plays.
I've been playing for 30 years, mostly on solid-body guitars with humbuckers and this Kent is so different that it's actually changed the way I play (in a good way).
If lost or stolen, I'd look for another to buy. In fact, I'm looking for a second one right now to use as a backup.
The only thing I'm having trouble getting used to is the volume and tone controls, because they are so far away from where I anchor my hand on the bridge.